History and Patron

The Catholic presence in Chapel Hill dates from at least the 1920’s. In 1922 the newly created St. Thomas More Mission began celebrating Mass for a handful of students in a second-floor room in Gerrard Hall of the University of North Carolina campus. By 1934 the congregation had grown to nearly 200, including some non-students, and Mass moved to the second floor of Graham Memorial. These faithful few pioneers contributed to the conversion of novelist Walker Percy to Catholicism. In 1940 the mission became an independent parish. Its growing size led to Mass being celebrated in the Hill Hall auditorium until a new and proper church was built on Gimghoul Road in 1957.
 

A separate campus ministry was made necessary by an influx of Catholic cadets to the U.S. Navy pre-flight school beginning in 1942. In 1945 the Diocese of Raleigh purchased the property and “White House” at 218 Pittsboro Street for the Catholic Student Center; a picture of this building can be found near the Pittsboro Street doors of the Church. The continuing growth of the Catholic student population at UNC led the Diocese of Raleigh to demolish the “White House” and replace it with a single-story multi-purpose Church building in 1968; this construction was financed by the first Bishop’s Annual Appeal (BAA). In 1971 Newman was canonically erected as an independent non-territorial parish serving the UNC Chapel Hill community. While it technically bears the title of Mary, Mother of the Church, it remains popularly known and loved as the Newman Catholic Community. Continued growth of the Catholic student population at UNC led in 1999 to an expansion and renovation of the Church building, and in 2013 the next-door Wesley Center was purchased as the Newman Activity Center.

Over the course of the decades Newman has been served by priests of the Diocese of Raleigh, the Society of Jesus, and the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, and, since 2013, by the Conventual Franciscan Friars. Various congregations of religious sisters have also ministered at Newman over the years, including at present the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Monroe, MI. Among the many professional staff who have ministered at Newman, special mention must be made of Dale Renguette, the sole staff member for over forty years (a meeting room in the Church building is named after him), and Kathy Martyn, who oversaw the 1999 renovations (she is commemorated by a plaque in the current Reconciliation Room).

St. John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, scholar, and poet. Originally a member of the evangelical wing of the Church of England, as an Oxford academic and Anglican priest he was drawn to the high-church tradition of Anglicanism. He became one of the more notable leaders of the Oxford Movement, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to return to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the English Reformation. In 1845 Newman, joined by some but not all of his followers, officially left the Church of England and his teaching post at Oxford University and was received into the Catholic Church.

Ordained a Catholic priest, Newman continued pastoral and theological work at the Oratory in Birmingham. His major Catholic writings include his autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua, the Grammar of Assent, The Idea of a University, a large compilation of sermons, several works of poetry, and the popular hymn Lead, Kindly Light, which we sing regularly at Newman. His deep attachment to Oxford University life has led his name to be associated with Catholic campus ministry outreach to higher education. He was created cardinal in 1879 with the motto “Cor ad Cor Loquitur” (“Heart speaks to heart”). He died in 1890 and was canonized in 2019; his feast is October 9.